she marches to her own beat

Just another day in Melbourne.

Get up, take the train, get to work, get lost in emails, meetings, presentations. LUNCH. Back to emails, meetings, papers. Done! Pack bags. Run. Catch the train. phew Made it just in time. Grab a seat to settle in for the train ride home, dump all my bags, smile at the red-headed, green-eyed, extremely fair schoolgirl sitting next to me.. wow what pretty hair.. no smile back.. aah well.. settle down with my book for the ride back home. 

‘The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass’ ‘de tadaak de tadaak nagada sang dhol baaje dhol baaje’.. wow, that’s some one listening to really loud Indian film music on their earphones, wonder how their eardrums are handling it, ‘leaving memories that become legend. Legend fa...’ ‘dhol baaje dhol baaje dhai dhai dhum dhum dhum!!’  Okay, who is that? I turn around, and its the red-headed school girl, looking sullenly outside the train windows, earphones plugged tightly into her eardrums. Whoa-ho ho..

That’s impressive! Does she even know what she is listening to? Curiosity totally piqued, I think I am going to ask her. 

But wait, NO.  Because a) I don’t really make conversations with strangers boring, I know, boohoo to you and b) I like to let my imagination take over.

So let’s see, hmmmm, maybe she totally knows Hindi, you know, it could be like the foreign language she learns at school or she is learning it to impress her Indian boyfriends folks! Maybe she just likes the music, you know the DHAIN DHAIN DHUM DHUM DHUM! Some kind of Indian Folk Rock chick! Maybe she just wants to block out her sad mood by listening to something that makes NO sense to her, maybe she loves Bollywood music, the colors, and Deepika Padukone’s dancing and beauty….. maybe I should get back to my book, and stop grinning widely at her because she just looked at me. OOPS!!

‘Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten’ oh, nagada song over, now what is she going to play… ‘dhoop tu hai, aur chao...’  Nahhh, not after de tadaak de tadaak. CLICK.  ‘english mein kende bootie shootie’ WhaaT?? Hahahaha. Shhhh, no thinking. Just enjoy the music and get back to the book.

‘Myth is long forgotten when the Age’   ‘mehfil tah sajdi teh hilte dhulte tooh’   ‘that gave it birth comes again’   ‘punjabiyan de tooh’ In One Age, called the Third Age, repeat pe, beat pe, bajti dholti….. an age yet to come, an Age long past….’

CHUCK IT!!

EVERYBODY DOES IT, and YOU CAN DO IT TOOhhhhh….‘Left, right kare chain chura kay, Tooh Tooh tooh too too too.. ‘ 

All pretense of book reading forgotten, I am happily drumming my fingers and feet to the repeat and beats of Tooh, and I notice her doing it too (pun intended). She finally smiles at me, and I laugh back. 

Not just another day in Melbourne.